Jay Leno, the American comedian who for years hosted the famed US talk show The Tonight Show, has hit out at modern talk shows that discuss politics, claiming he doesn\u2019t think \u201canybody wants to hear a lecture\u201d.<\/p>\n
Leno\u2019s comments, made in a conversation with the Ronald Reagan Institute, were published by the foundation on 22 July<\/a>, shortly after Stephen Colbert\u2019s US talk show was cancelled by the US broadcaster CBS<\/a> \u2013 in what Colbert\u2019s supporters believe was a politically motivated act<\/a> due to Colbert\u2019s regular lampooning of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n It is unclear if Leno made the remarks before or after Colbert\u2019s cancellation, but he said in the video that he disagreed with the politicisation of late-night talk shows.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to think that people come to a comedy show to get away from the pressures of life,\u201d he said. \u201cI love political humour \u2013 don\u2019t get me wrong. But people wind up cosying too much to one side or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody wants to hear a lecture \u2026 Why shoot for just half an audience? Why not try to get the whole? I like to bring people into the big picture. I don\u2019t understand why you would alienate one particular group \u2013 or just don\u2019t do it at all. I\u2019m not saying you have to throw your support [on one side]. But just do what\u2019s funny.\u201d<\/p>\n Leno also recalled being condemned for the same exact jokes by both Republican and Democrat supporters \u2013 which he suggested was a good thing.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how you get a whole audience,\u201d he said. \u201cNow you have to be content with half the audience, because you have to give your opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Colbert\u2019s The Late Show was axed earlier this month in what CBS claimed was a \u201cfinancial decision\u201d.<\/p>\n But many of Colbert\u2019s fans and supporters \u2013 which include high-profile names including David Letterman and Elizabeth Warren <\/a>\u2013 raised their eyebrows at the timing of the decision. The announcement came shortly after Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, agreed to pay Donald Trump $16m<\/a> to settle the president\u2019s lawsuit against the company over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris \u2013 which the network\u2019s lawyers deemed \u201cmeritless\u201d in recent court filings.<\/p>\n Trump gloated over The Late Show\u2019s cancellation on social media, writing: \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump had sued Paramount over what he claimed to be \u201celectoral interference\u201d over the editing of an answer to a question posed to Kamala Harris in an episode of 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s lawsuit was mocked in the season premiere of South Park, which was broadcast on Comedy Central a day after the show signed a $1.5bn (\u00a31.1bn) deal with their network\u2019s owners Paramount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-296728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114927061359606578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753647675_302_newFile.jpg\")
Former talk show host Jay Leno (Getty Images)<\/p>\n